State sets ag value record

California's agricultural production reached a record $44.7 billion last year, up 3 percent from a year earlier.

California's agricultural production reached a record $44.7 billion last year, up 3 percent from a year earlier.

That keeps the state solidly as the nation's No. 1 farm state in terms of revenue. California's farms produced 11.3 percent of the nation's total farm revenue in 2012, followed by Iowa and Nebraska.

California also is the No. 1 dairy state in the nation.

This state alone produced a fifth of the nation's milk supply last year, though revenues slipped due to a drop in the number of herds and sliding milk prices.

That slippage was felt in San Joaquin County even though the county last year saw its total value of farm output jump 28 percent to a record of nearly $2.9 billion.

The county's milk production, which had been No. 1 in the county in 2011 with a value of $453 million, slipped to No. 3 last year with a value of $404 million.

Grapes and walnuts, No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, had a total value of just more than $1 billion.

Even with the downturn in dairy prices, California generally, and San Joaquin County specifically, enjoyed a very productive agricultural year in 2013.

Agriculture provides considerable economic ballast, especially in the state's rural areas. The importance of the ag industry to the state is enhanced even more by how each dollar produced on the state's 80,500 farms ripples out through the rest of the economy.